People in cars

The forum for ranting, raving, complaining and praising
User avatar
Fat_Bulldog
likes to grate his own cheese
Posts: 12554
Joined: May 9 06, 12:41 pm
Location: Drunk

Re: People in cars

Post by Fat_Bulldog »

...putting butter on my popcorn

User avatar
wart57
just can't quit you.
Posts: 25243
Joined: April 18 06, 4:33 pm
Location: Lost

Re: People in cars

Post by wart57 »

Fat_Bulldog wrote:...putting butter on my popcorn
Go easy on the butter Fat...

https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm
Heart Disease in the United States
About 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths.

User avatar
Fat_Bulldog
likes to grate his own cheese
Posts: 12554
Joined: May 9 06, 12:41 pm
Location: Drunk

Re: People in cars

Post by Fat_Bulldog »

wart57 wrote:
Fat_Bulldog wrote:...putting butter on my popcorn
Go easy on the butter Fat...

https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm
Heart Disease in the United States
About 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths.
I want to heavily influence how I die.

User avatar
wart57
just can't quit you.
Posts: 25243
Joined: April 18 06, 4:33 pm
Location: Lost

Re: People in cars

Post by wart57 »

Fat_Bulldog wrote:
wart57 wrote:
Fat_Bulldog wrote:...putting butter on my popcorn
Go easy on the butter Fat...

https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm
Heart Disease in the United States
About 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths.
I want to heavily influence how I die.
Image

I think you may need to go stay here then...

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
"I could totally eat a pig butt, if smoked correctly!"
Posts: 27273
Joined: August 5 08, 11:24 am
Location: Thinking of the Children

Re: People in cars

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

lukethedrifter wrote:
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:It should be noted that there is a big push all across the country to try to make areas more ped/bike friendly. The issue is, it's very difficult to retrofit an infrastructure in many cases that was designed solely around cars. In some areas it's easier, namely downtowns and larger cities where congestion occurs more on the interstates than the city streets. Someone posted an article about what they did in Indianapolis, and they've done it here in Little Rock as well. Also, older subdivisions that were built on grids.

Quick history lesson.

Early to mid 1900s, cars were more of a luxury than necessity and as such developments and cities expanded with pedestrians in mind and largely in a grad pattern which resulted in straight roads (why walk 1.5 miles to go 1 mile as the crow flies). Because there was row after row of streets, few are treated as major thoroughfares which is helpful for ped/bike access.

Then, post WW2, cars became more normal and developments and cities expanded in accordance (who cares if the road goes 1.5 miles instead of 1 mile because you'll be driving and the curvy roads and what not are more appealing). Cities expanded with a spaghetti web of streets in subdivisions that lead to major thoroughfares where everyone drives for the most part. In many cases, the only way to get from A to B is on said major thoroughfare which is likely already too busy and not built with ped/bike in mind. And, in order to make them ped/bike friendly, it would require taking property and building a lane which costs $$$$$$$ and won't happen.

In short, everyone's an [expletive] and the design of most every infrastructure system guarantees conflicts between cars/cyclists.
Good stuff. And why i have zero interest in outer burb/subdivision living. I like being able to walk to Cousin Hugo’s or bike to the grocery store.

I could suspend those requirements for the right country living spot
I think I've mentioned it on here before but maybe not. We used to live in a neighborhood that was built on that grid pattern back in the 30s/40s. We lived about a mile, maybe less, from a grocery store and an area they'd have a farmers market on saturday mornings. Every saturday we'd walk to the grocery store and farmers market.

Then we moved to a house that was built in the 90s. We live about a mile, maybe less as the crow flies, from a grocery store and have not walked to it one time. There's a major street between us, the walk is 1.5 miles on sidewalks, and generally speaking it's just not enjoyable walking the path of store after store/crossing a 4 lane divided street/then store after store to get there. Even the more minor streets are thoroughfares to the main thoroughfare and everyone flies down them.

I'd always known about the general change in city expansion dipping my toes in city planning every now and then, but this experience has really made me appreciate the old school ways.

User avatar
G. Keenan
Sucking on the Rally Nipple
Posts: 23459
Joined: April 16 06, 6:03 pm
Location: Chicago

Re: People in cars

Post by G. Keenan »

lukethedrifter wrote:
33anda3rd wrote:
lukethedrifter wrote:
33anda3rd wrote:The fact of these deaths is an admittedly gauche but also fairly practical and real: "accidents happen." If you're in a car-on-car crash you have steel and a seat belt and an airbag to protect you. Your car by law needs the airbag and you by law need to have the seatbelt on. If you're on a bike it's just you and the pavement. Bicyclists need to be extra cautious, because if they are in an accident with a car they're going to come out on the worse end every time. Thus, they really should be the most defensive drivers on the road. Often they are the most aggressive. If I hit and injured or heaven forbid killed a bicyclist I'd be devastated, and I think cyclists see motorists as the opposite: that motorists are out to run cyclists off the road.
You have a very one sided point of view. I bet it will be fruitless to try to convince you that American car centric culture is to blame for many cyclists’ deaths.
And I assume it would be fruitless to try to convince you that
People in cars are a holes. Carcissists.
Is the most one-sided statement in this thread so far.
It’s the entire point of the rant. So, yes. You don’t agree?
You're both right. You could put Mother Theresa behind the wheel and she'd be road raging in 20 minutes. Give her 6 months time commuting to the orphanage every day and she'd be talking about the Final Solution. Cars really do turn people bad, because when you have somewhere to go, everything else and every other person on the road is just an impediment to fulfilling your desire to get where you're going. You are the only person with a legitimate reason to be driving, everyone else is just an idiot getting in your way.

I've also seen the general sh*ttiness of cyclists increase hugely over the years. You'll find old threads on here from me praising cycling and trashing drivers, but I'll be damned if here in Chicago at least the tables haven't turned and cyclists are just out of control. The other day I saw an elderly man in a car at the intersection in front of my house. He had a green light and was making a left turn. A douchebag cyclist, who was running the red light, felt that he wasn't turning fast enough and swerved around him and yelled "hurry the [expletive] up old man!". That has become typical. I think as cycling becomes more common we'll just have more douchebag cyclists out there.

User avatar
33anda3rd
Replies Authoritatively
Posts: 8418
Joined: April 7 13, 9:45 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: People in cars

Post by 33anda3rd »

Most car accidents are not caused by road-raging "carcissists" they're caused by people looking at their phones, people turning the radio dial, people eating fast food while driving, people not paying attention to street signs, people not paying attention to pedestrians or cyclists, people not paying attention to a million things. 40K deaths in a year is something we as society are basically like "ok, this is what we agree as a whole to be an acceptable thing so we all have the luxury and convenience of driving 1-ton balls of steel around to get where we need to go."

User avatar
lukethedrifter
darjeeling sipping elite
Posts: 37434
Joined: October 17 06, 11:19 am
Location: Huis Clos

Re: People in cars

Post by lukethedrifter »

Point of information: the definition of carcissist does not require one to be road raging.

Online
User avatar
ghostrunner
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 28741
Joined: April 18 06, 9:40 pm

Re: People in cars

Post by ghostrunner »

33anda3rd wrote:Most car accidents are not caused by road-raging "carcissists" they're caused by people looking at their phones, people turning the radio dial, people eating fast food while driving, people not paying attention to street signs, people not paying attention to pedestrians or cyclists, people not paying attention to a million things. 40K deaths in a year is something we as society are basically like "ok, this is what we agree as a whole to be an acceptable thing so we all have the luxury and convenience of driving 1-ton balls of steel around to get where we need to go."
This would seem to be the carcissism in question. The attitude is "I'm in the car and safe, so I don't need to think about others." Only since biking have I caught how many times I roll up over a crosswalk at a stop - I've probably been doing this forever except in areas where pedestrians are more prominent. This prevents someone like me who might be biking on the sidewalk from being able to cross, and it forces pedestrians out into traffic. So I'm now making a conscious effort to knock it off.

Freed Roger
Seeking a Zubaz seamstress
Posts: 26227
Joined: September 4 07, 1:48 pm
Location: St. Louis

Re: People in cars

Post by Freed Roger »

I dont think you guys can fairly project Chicago douchebags and Cub fans that also happen to be cyclists onto everywhere else. But [expletive] in cars are universal

Post Reply